Need for quality healthcare nationwide

Although it's too early to evaluate the effects of Beijing's medical care reform, the first three weeks' trial since April 8 seems to have met people's expectations. The main goal of the landmark medical care reform is to change the unhealthy practice of hospitals' "covering their expenses with medicine revenue".

Two major goals of the latest reform are to abolish the price markup of drugs and examination fees in public hospitals and other establishments that provide medical care, as well as to replace the hospital registration and diagnostic fees with medical service fees. The first goal is aimed at reducing the outpatient fees by about 5 percent, which might produce immediate results as long as the measure is strictly implemented.

According to Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning, in the first two weeks since the launch of the latest reform, the total amount accumulated through the drug sunshine purchasing platform was 2.87 billion yuan ($416.55 million), which means the combined savings of patients during the period was 240 million yuan, or 8.4 percent of the total drug expenditure.